SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HAYMARKET AFFAIR
The Haymarket Affair stands as an example of workers taking on the responsibility of rising up against their brutal suppression of constitutional rights. The immediate result of the Haymarket Square was the curbing of the radical labor movement, for there was such an intense climate of fear and hostility that it provided justification for officials to crack down on unionization and strip people of their rights to peaceably assemble and to free speech. Also, the success of capitalism created a huge middle class that did not support radical ideas.
Thus, the radical Knights of Labor declined in popularity, while the conservative American Federation of Labor rose. The AFL rejected radicalism, choosing to take on the responsibility of fighting for practical, “bread and butter” issues, such as higher wages, shorter hours, and job security. Their primary methods of achieving their goals were boycotting and collectively bargaining.
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At the same time, the trial kept alive the energy of resentment and inspired many workers to take on the responsibility of fighting for their rights as workers. 1886 became known as “the year of the great uprising of labor,” with 1,400 strikes involving over 500,000 people.
“But if you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement - the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery, the wage slaves, expect salvation - if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, the flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you stand."
--- August Spies in his final address to the court.
Though there was never a permanent labor party, labor unions still found some success in politics. In the fall of 1886, Henry George was nominated the New York mayor, and he came in second with 31% of the vote, outpolling Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912, Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party ran for president and polled 1 million votes.
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The long-term effect of the trial was worldwide attention to the labor movement.
"The legal limitation of the working day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvements and emancipation of the working class must prove abortive....The Congress proposes 8 hours as the legal limit of the working day."
--- Resolution of the Geneva Congress of the First International in September 1886.
In 1889 at a labor conference in Paris, an AFL delegate suggested that May 1 should become International Workers’ Day in memory of the Haymarket Affair. In almost every major industrial nation today, May 1st is Labor Day. However, because many communists rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair on May 1, the association prompted President Grover Cleveland to sign into law the commemoration of Labor Day for the first Monday in September.
Workers finally gained official recognition and protection of their rights in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established the minimum wage and the eight-hour work day.
Click here to read the full text of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, As Amended:
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.pdf
Click here to read the full text of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, As Amended:
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.pdf
The legacy of the Haymarket Eight remains to this day. They represented the bravery and determination of the workers who took on the responsibility of fighting for their rights, which consisted of shorter hours, higher wages, and job security and safety. The Haymarket Affair will forever be remembered as a major step towards the more equitable work terms we enjoy today.